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Cancer effects of background radiation (1987)

Auteur	Alice Stewart
Datum	mei 1987
Classificatie	6.01.4.20/12 (STRALING - RADON/ACHTERGRONDSTRALING)
Voorkant

Cancer Effects of Background Radiation

How Reliable are ICRP Recommendations

The International Commission on Radiological Protection maintains that the 
best method of estimating the cancer risk from small doses of ionizing radiations 
is by linear extrapolation of high dose effects (1).
Realignment of broken chromosomes after exposure to radiation is a well known 
phenomenom which is supposed to reduce the risk at low dose levels, and the risk 
from natural background radiation - with an average dose rate of 0.1 rems per 
annum - is supposed to be so small that even a twenty fold increase would not 
have a noticeable effect on cancer prevalence.

These opinions are shared by all standard setting committees in Europe and the 
United states. Nevertheless, there are a number of epidemiological observations 
which are compatible with a) linear extrapolation of high dose effects grossly 
underestimating the cancer risks of radiation workers and b) a background radiation 
dose rate of 2.0 rems per annum being more than sufficient to double cancer 
prevalence rates. Therefore we are clearly dealing with a complex situation which 
(since it does not lend itself to animal experimentation), requires correct assessment 
of several epidemiological studies.

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